Programmatically enabling user access to CRM secured field instances based on secured field instance settings

Abstract

Access to customer relationship management (CRM) secured field instances is enabled based on field settings. A requester's identity determines action paths to be executed in order to enable access to fields. A client application's user privileges are inherited to enable access to secured fields. Such access through a granted privilege is provided through an API intermediating inheritance of user's privileges from client application.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A method executed by a computing device enabling access to customer relationship management (CRM) secured field instances, the method comprising:
 determining a profile of a user requesting access to a CRM secured field instance at a processor of the computing device; 
 determining a global access privilege of the user to access the CRM secured field instance based on the profile at the processor of the computing device; 
 storing, at a data store through the processor, one or more Principle Object Attribute Access (POAA) entities having a plurality of fields including: a security principal of one of: the user and a team, a shared access including one of: a read access and an update access, and the CRM secured field instance including: a target identifier, an instance type, and an attribute identifier; 
 retrieving a client application privilege of the user from the data store through the one or more POAA entities to retrieve the CRM field instance with a secured status upon determining the user not having a global read access at the processor of the computing device; 
 determining an action path to enable access to the CRM secured field based on a setting of the CRM secured field instance at the processor of the computing device; and 
 enabling the user to access the CRM secured field instance through a communication module of the computing device by executing the action path at the processor of the computing device. 
 
     
     
       2. The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 providing the user at least one from the set of: granting access, modifying access, and revoking access associated with the CRM secured field instance through the communication module of the computing device. 
 
     
     
       3. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the CRM field instance setting is one of a secured and unsecured status. 
     
     
       4. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the action path groups a plurality of CRM field instances. 
     
     
       5. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the action path groups a plurality of user profiles. 
     
     
       6. The method of  claim 1 , wherein determining the action path is based on at least one from the set of: a system resource utilization, a timed duration, and a usage limit. 
     
     
       7. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the action path adds a select query to a select list to retrieve the CRM field instance with an unsecured status. 
     
     
       8. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the action path adds a select query to a select list to retrieve the field instance with a secured status upon determining the user having a global read access. 
     
     
       9. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the action path inherits the client application privilege of the user and adds a select query with a join condition on a POAA table to a select list in order to retrieve the field instance with a secured status. 
     
     
       10. A customer relationship management (CRM) application server enabling access to CRM field instances, the server comprising:
 a memory; 
 a processor coupled to the memory, the processor executing an application in conjunction with instructions stored in the memory, wherein the application is configured to:
 determine a profile of a user requesting access to a CRM field instance having one of a secured and unsecured status setting; 
 determine a global update access privilege of the user to update the field instance based on the profile; 
 in response to the user not having the global update access privilege, throw an exception to initiate a process including one of:
 deny an update to the field instance, and 
 grant a limited update access including at least one of a read and a write access to the field instance; 
 
 retrieve a client application privilege of the user from a data store through one or more Principle Object Attribute Access (POAA) entity instances to retrieve the CRM field instance with a secured status upon determining the user not having a global read access; 
 grant one or more shared user privileges depending on POAA entity instance needs; 
 determine an action path to enable updating the field instance based on a setting of the CRM field instance; and 
 enable the user to update the field instance by executing the action path. 
 
 
     
     
       11. The server of  claim 10 , wherein the action path includes one of a write and delete action. 
     
     
       12. The server of  claim 10 , wherein the action path includes issuing an exception. 
     
     
       13. The server of  claim 10 , wherein the exception is used to grant a limited write access to the CRM field instance with an unsecured status. 
     
     
       14. The server of  claim 10 , wherein the action path includes allowing the user to update the secured field instance upon determining the user having the global update access. 
     
     
       15. The server of  claim 14 , wherein the application is further configured to determine the shared update access upon determining the user having no global access. 
     
     
       16. The server of  claim 15 , wherein the action path inherits the client application privilege of the user and adds a select query with a join condition on a POAA table to a select list in order to retrieve the field instance with a secured status. 
     
     
       17. A computing device for enabling access to customer relationship management (CRM) field instances, the computing device comprising:
 a memory for storing instructions; and 
 a processor configured to perform a method in conjunction with the instructions, the method comprising:
 determining a profile of a user requesting access to a CRM field instance having one of a secured and unsecured status setting; 
 determining a global access privilege of the user to access the CRM field instance based on the profile; 
 storing one or more Principle Object Attribute Access (POAA) entity instances having a plurality of fields including: a security principal of one of: the user and a team, a shared access including one of: a read access and an update access, and the CRM field instance including: a target identifier, an instance type, and an attribute identifier; 
 retrieving a client application privilege of the user from a data store through the one or more POAA entity instances to retrieve the CRM field instance with a secured status upon determining the user not having a global read access; 
 granting one or more shared user privileges depending on POAA entity instance needs; 
 determining an action path to one of grant, modify, and revoke access to the field instance based on a setting of the CRM field instance; and 
 enabling the user to access the field instance by executing the action path. 
 
 
     
     
       18. The computing device of  claim 17 , wherein the method further comprises:
 employing a create Application Programming Interface (API) for granting access to the secured field instance; 
 employing an update API to modify access to the secured field instance; and 
 employing a delete API to revoke access from the secured field instance. 
 
     
     
       19. The computing device of  claim 17 , wherein the user is a trusted client application.